The first day of the year feels like a good day to talk about Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be.

I’m afraid that in discussing it I will show myself to possess the vacuousness that some critics have accused the book itself of possessing.

I liked the book. I did. But when, in the m.o. of Heti’s main character, I set upon the smart small circle of friends around me to suss out how a person should think about How Should a Person Be, I found that my thinking was wrong. They hated it. READ MORE >